Unable to boot

[caterhamfan]

Ubuntu Version:
24.04.03

Problem Description:
Unable to boot into Ubuntu at all. Just goes to the bios. I have a dual boot system, grub setup as the main. My system froze so I shut it down using the power button. Big mistake.

Now I don’t see the grub menu.

I have booted into liveusb and used boot repair to scan. When it’s done scanning there is no option for recommended repair and I cannot even do this with advanced options.

Here is a pastebin - Ubuntu Pastebin

Would be grateful for anything I can try or do to resolve this and boot again! Thank you

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[tea-for-one]

@caterhamfan

I have a dual boot system

Each OS on a separate disk or just one disk?

Boot-repair only shows one disk nvme0n1 with BitLocker enabled
Three partitions only, none of which is a Linux filesystem

The firmware is EFI-compatible, and is set in EFI-mode for this live-session

You’ve booted into an EFI session yet your internal disk does not have an ESP

From your live session, open a terminal and enter:-
lsblk -e 7

What is the output?

[yancek]

Boot windows and turn off bitlocker and try booting the Ubuntu installer again. The first partition on the drive does not show any filesystem or other pertinent information because of bitlocker. Interesting that it shows 2 Recovery partitions as there is usually one and a Reserved partition.

[ndoki]

Hi, you’ll have to reboot from your usb again, select “Ubuntu” and run the Boot Repair. In your BIOS make sure that Ubuntu is at the very top of the boot priority list, above “Windows Boot Manager”.

Also, once in Windows, using the Command Prompt (Admin): bcedit /set{bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi

(To tell Windows, “Hey, use the Ubuntu menu to start up.”)

[caterhamfan]

Each OS is on a separate disk.

I am unable to boot into windows and boot repair gives no option to repair.

Please see the attached

Not sure really where to go with this.

[caterhamfan]

[tea-for-one]

@caterhamfan

My system froze so I shut it down using the power button

It looks like your Ubuntu OS is on sda with sda1 as the ESP
Is sda2 the /boot partition?
Do you use encryption for Ubuntu?

I reckon the first step is to run fsck on these 3 partitions?

[caterhamfan]

I truthfully forgotten what the boot partition is. Encryption is enabled.

I am unable to mount, repair through disks or fsck

[tea-for-one]

You run fsck on an unmounted partition not a disk i.e. sda1 rather than sda

Boot into a “Try Ubuntu” live session
Open a terminal Ctrl Alt t
Double check that sda is still your Ubuntu disk

sudo fsck /dev/sda1

sudo fsck /dev/sda2

Find the name of the LVM member

lsblk

Output similar to

NAME                      MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda                         8:16   0  74.5G  0 disk 
├─sda1                      8:17   0     1G  0 part 
├─sda2                      8:18   0     2G  0 part 
└─sda3                      8:19   0  71.5G  0 part 
  └─ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv 252:0    0  71.5G  0 lvm  

Find the exact device name

sudo lvm lvscan

Output

  ACTIVE            '/dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv' [<71.48 GiB] inherit

Check that the partition is not mounted

sudo umount /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv

Output

umount: /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv: not mounted.

Run file system check

sudo fsck /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv

Output

fsck from util-linux 2.40.2
e2fsck 1.47.2 (1-Jan-2025)
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv: clean, 160011/4685824 files, 3992748/18737152 blocks

You may have to decrypt the volume at some stage but I don’t know the exact process.

[caterhamfan]

Thanks for your help

I’ve got stuck literally right away. Would this be option 1?

[tea-for-one]

Volume label probably unimportant right now.
Try option 1 anyway

Eventually, you will need two flags boot & esp, hopefully they are still present.

[caterhamfan]

A complete mess here.. I’ve never seen loops? What on earth are they?

[tea-for-one]

Loops are snap packages and can be ignored
You haven’t yet run

sudo fsck /dev/sda2

[caterhamfan]

Possibly non existent device..?

[tea-for-one]

@caterhamfan

Possibly non existent device..?

It existed in post no. 5, where did it go?

sudo parted -l

Please show the output while booted in your live session

[caterhamfan]

Only showing USB and Windows Drive. The Ubuntu one isn’t showing

[tea-for-one]

Exit the live session
Power off the PC

Check the physical connections of your Ubuntu disk

Boot into another live session and back up both your Windows and Ubuntu data.

Please confirm that you have restorable backups before the next step.

[caterhamfan]

Physical connections ok, rebooted into live usb and I have restorable backups.

Quite happy to just go ahead and reinstall Ubuntu at this stage

[caterhamfan]

The disk isn’t even showing for a full reinstall

[celticwarrior]

If you have changed the drive mode to AHCI before, now there’s a chance the firmware (UEFI) settings have been reset. Make sure to change it back to AHCI.

The above not being the case then the only logical conclusion is hardware failure.